Rapière alla spagnola, à coquille repercée,... - Lot 78 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Rapière alla spagnola, à coquille repercée, Brescia vers 1670-80. A Brescian cup-hilt rapier, alla spagnola, circa 1670-80. With long very slender blade of diamond section changing to hollow-ground section at the forte and reverting immediately ahead of the ricasso, iron hilt of slender rounded bars with moulded plain button terminals, including a pair of long straight quillons cut with an alternating pattern of narrow and very narrow fluting, the knuckleguard decorated en suite, compressed circular pommel cut with a band of diagonal fluting and rising to a flattened moulded button, grip of boldly patterned wire bound between "Turk's heads", large cup-guard chiselled in low relief, decorated with a solid calyx impaled by the ricasso, two pierced concentric bands of interlaced tendrils spiralling on varieties of flowerheads, formed with a prominent rompe puntas encircling the rim of the cup, the latter decorated with a pierced running pattern of scrolling flowers forming an undulating outer edge, and fitted with a large guardapolvo pierced and chiselled en suite with the outer surface of the cup. L. overall: 131.8 cm - L. blade: 120 cm. From about 1640 onwards the cup-guard was considered in Italy and Spain to offer the maximum protection to a swordsman. The prominently out turned flange encircling the rim of the cup (rompe puntas) developed as a device by which to catch and break the point of the opponent's blade. The extended surface of the cup-guard also provided a new and ideal medium for iron chisellers to develop luxurious designs. Throughout Europe Italian and Spanish schools and Masters of fencing were pre-eminent in the art of noble combat and duelling from the beginning of the 16th century until fashion turned in favour of the French in about 1650. The cup-hilt remained dominant in Italy and Spain well into the 18th century, probably reaching its aesthetic peak in about 1680-90.